Department of Infectious Diseases, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

The aims of this analysis were to investigate treatment completion and adherence among people with ongoing injecting drug use or receiving opioid substitution therapy (OST) in a study of response-guided therapy for chronic HCV genotypes 2/3 infection.

CONCLUSIONS:

This study demonstrated a high adherence to directly observed PEG-IFN and self-administered ribavirin among people with ongoing injecting drug use or receiving OST. These data also suggest that shortening therapy from 24 to 12 weeks can lead to improved treatment completion. Treatment completion was associated with improved response to therapy. ACTIVATE trial registration number: NCT01364090 - May 31, 2011.